Whilst
sailing aboard the British Railways' 152ft long paddle steamer Freshwater
from Yarmouth to Lymington in the summer of 1959, Professor Alan
Robinson heard that the ship was to be withdrawn and, becoming
concerned at the increasing rate at which paddlers were being
sent off to the scrapyard, hatched the idea of founding the
Paddle Steamer Preservation Society. A letter to a national
newspaper started the ball rolling and by September of the
following year the society, which then had a membership of around
sixty, started their fundraising by chartering the paddle steamer
Consul for an evening
cruise from Weymouth.

Freshwater
was duly withdrawn but, against expectations, was bought by a Mr
Herbert Jennings who decided to launch his own paddle steamer
preservation project putting the ship into service sailing from
Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings on the Sussex coast filling a
gap left by P & A Campbells' withdrawal from the area a
couple of years before. It was a brave decision for Mr Jennings
and the less than happy results were a hard lesson to learn.

Newly
renamed Sussex Queen,
the ship did not arrive in time to start the sailings advertised
in this steamer notice. On 19th June the editor of the Eastbourne
Gazette wrote to the company "We are sorry that the last
minute interruptions have meant so much extra work for you all.
When your programme eventually begins we are hoping to get
pictures of your first arrival at Eastbourne."

In
a scrapbook which he kept and which we now have in our archives,
Mr Jennings fills out more details of these last minute
interruptions. He recounts "After great difficulty in
getting started after all the overhaul work was carried out we
were delayed for nearly a month in getting the radio installed
(she had not needed one for her railway ferry work inside the
Solent) with all this time wages going out at the rate of £300
per week plus harbour dues and fuel costs. Another problem was
crew. Steam engineers were people of a past age, firemen for a
coal fired ship all dead and when a good one was found a
pig-headed half Scot upset him so we lost him. Of the deck crew
they were generally a scruffy lot of British Rail throw-outs. The
mate had little authority. The purser/radio officer was useless
and quite unable to look after the tickets or cash.The number of
passengers leaving the vessel never tallied with the tickets
issued or the money handed in."

Mr
Jennings had had the right idea in trying to appoint a former
P&A Campbell paddle steamer captain, Neville Cottman, as
master but he became ill and was not able to join the company. A
Capt Collin brought Sussex Queen
to Newhaven but for much of the summer she was under the command
Capt Kane, a former chief officer of Red Funnel Steamers' Solent
Queen.

Later
sailing bills were in a different and cheaper format as money for
the project began to run out.

The
scrapbook doesn't give a date for the start of the trips but an
undated cutting from the Eastbourne Gazette reports "Unable
to announce her initial trip from Eastbourne on Thursday beyond
chalked wording on a blackboard at the pier entrance,
Sussex Queen took sixty passengers for a
trip round the Royal Sovereign lightship. She enjoyed good
weather for this and the afternoon trip to Hastings and the total
passenger load for the day was one hundred and thirty."

At
the end of the seaon Mr Jennings wrote in his scrapbook
"Standing on the end of the pier I watched my steamer swing
and lay a course for Newhaven around Beachy Head. I watched her
disappear into the setting sun. To me it was a sad sight. I felt
very lonely as I pondered if this was to be her last trip from
Eastbourne. Regrettably it was. Due to the bungling of our
affairs by my company's solicitor we lost our concession with the
Palace Pier Company."

Sussex
Queen retired to Topsham on the River Exe
for the winter where she was pictured the following April after
some wag had painted out the Sus of Sussex in the name on the
bow.

Another view of the ship at Topsham
taken by Terry Lewis

For
1961, Mr Jennings had further plans. If he couldn't go back to
the Sussex Coast he would try elsewhere. He recounts "Many
alternatives were considered including possible limited operation
in the Bristol Channel jointly with P & A Cambell but this
fell through and I was thrown back onto fighting my way into
Bournemouth where an opening existed owing to Cosens having
disposed of their Monarch.
Fight my way it was with every obstacle being placed before me.
This is a story of most unbelievable intrigue and even
sabotage"

Renamed
Swanage Queen, the
ship did sail from Bournemouth in 1961 running mostly on the
Swanage service and one day a week to the Isle of Wight but the
short nine week season was not a success. Once again crew
problems were endemic. Unwelcome national publicity came with the
ship being stranded overnight at sea with passengers aboard in
thick fog. And at one stage Swanage Queen
nearly sank alongside Poole Quay, Mr Jennings believing that
someone had deliberately opened her sea-cocks.

After
the season Swanage Queen was
put up for sale and in February 1962 was bought by a company set
up by Capt Townsend, founder of the Dover/Calais ferry company of
that name who initially hoped to put her back into service. By
this time the Board of Trade were beginning to take a most
stringent interest in elderly paddle steamers changing hands so
more problems arose and in April she was put on the market again
finding her final resting place in the scrapyard in Belgium the
following month.

For
all his difficulties and ultimate lack of success with paddle
steamer preservation and operation, I cannot help but admire
Herbert Jennings (pictured above). At a time when paddlers were
going to the breakers at an ever increasing rate he tried to stem
that tide. He put his money where his mouth was. And he worked
tirelessly to achieve that goal.

Although
his ship has long gone, her memory and her legacy remain. If
Professor Robinson had not travelled aboard her in 1959 there
would not be a PSPS today as we know it. And her place in history
is secure as the first paddle steamer in this country which
anyone tried to preserve.

Never
daunted, the indefatigable paddle steamer loving Mr Jennings made
subsequent unsuccessful enquiries about buying the Medway
Queen. But despite all these difficulties
he contined to be involved with passenger vessels successfully
running a smaller launch from his home town of Exmouth for very
many years after.